Celerra [EOL] vs Dell PowerScale comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Celerra [EOL] and Dell PowerScale are both solutions in the NAS category. Additionally, 100% of Celerra [EOL] users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Dell PowerScale users who would recommend it.

Celerra [EOL]

Read 1 Celerra [EOL] review

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerScale

Read 107 Dell PowerScale reviews

17,998 Views
9,899 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Celerra [EOL]

Dell PowerScale

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Celerra [EOL] and Dell PowerScale based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, CTERA and others in NAS.

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Buyer's Guide

NAS

September 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Celerra [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Dell PowerScale

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

NAS (1st), File and Object Storage (1st)

Featured Reviews

it_user5157

Sr System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees

Highly scalable and reliable SAN with fiber channel connectivity but bulky in size and consumes a lot of power

Hot spare disk system to take over the full workload in the event of a failure, at the same performance and service levels. The data is clustered over multiple disks so data read/write access time is very low. Fiber channel connectivity option for high speed data transfer. Single point of management/control. Customized version of Linux OS hence much higher security.

Read full review

RahulSharma8

Storage Platform Engineer at Expedia Group

Unified file sharing has simplified multi-tenant access and has delivered seamless data replication

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) includes its replication features; when we decommissioned our old Isilon cluster, we migrated all of the data to a new cluster, and it was pretty seamless. All you have to do is create the certificates and make those certificates available to the target cluster, then initiate a few jobs. The inter-cluster replication feature, called SyncIQ, allows you to set up all of the jobs and move your data entirely, either timely or all at once. Another suitable feature is the ability to back up your directories; you can take snapshots for all of your directories, and in fact, I believe you can take around a thousand snapshots for a single directory. The inter-replication, geo-replication is one feature. Dell provides a variety class of hardware suitable for your workloads, meaning if your data is just lab and not critical, you don't have to spend much on the hardware; conversely, if your data is mission-critical, you can buy a high-performance node from Dell. Additionally, you can span Dell PowerScale (Isilon) cluster to a large number of nodes, and code upgrades are pretty smooth because all protocols will be upgraded under a single piece of code. Since it provides a single file system that spans across the nodes, you don't have to worry about that directory structure being separately created on individual nodes, making it a fitting solution for a data lake solution because you can access the same data from multiple protocols.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"At last we bought this Celerra NS 40, with 17 TB of space which is giving superb performance."

"The most valuable features of the solution are flexibility and ease of implementation."

"You plug in a new node and data starts migrating over to it, and IT spreads out the load. We've added multiple nodes to the system since deploying it. The process is pretty seamless, and we are able to do it with no downtime. It's a very easy process to do."

"With Dell PowerScale, there is no concern about whether the system is running; Dell PowerScale operates in all circumstances, and we have experienced six years of zero seconds of downtime."

"My experience when deploying Dell PowerScale (Isilon) was very straightforward, as we had Dell come on site to do all the actual setup, which was a big help."

"I would rate Dell PowerScale (Isilon) as a product a ten out of ten."

"The tool comes with cheap disks and works fast for video content."

"Its most valuable feature is the DR capabilities replication."

"It's easy to manage. The web UI is very intuitive, and there's CLI also that you can use to manage it."

More Dell PowerScale pros

Cons

"Very bulky and heavy in weight."

"It is a bit higher priced than some of the other systems."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) could be improved, particularly the UI, which could use some polishing as far as ease of use for the customer."

"The solution isn't suitable for small environments or small customers."

"We had some issues with level 1 support. We had to fight with them on repeated issues. There is room for improvement in level 1 support."

"The solution is expensive. It's quite expensive for the amount of storage we have."

"The initial setup for this solution is complex."

"There is room for improvement with the updates. It can take a significant amount of time to do a major OS update. However, even though it takes multiple reboots, the cluster stays up. If we want to apply a newer version of the OS, we have to roll back some of the patches so that we can upgrade. It requires a few reboots just to do that. The cluster doesn't come down, everything is still running, but it's time-consuming, at times."

"There are some missing features in the product, especially when our company needs to do some tape backup, and we see that the tool doesn't have integration capabilities."

More Dell PowerScale cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The pricing is excellent."

"This solution is priced slightly higher than others on the market but does offer good quality. With this solution's data reduction and compression, we were able to purchase less. Costs have dropped because of the data rate of compression and deduplication."

"The general cost for a system like this is expensive. The total cost depends on your use case. You need to pay for every additional feature that you use."

"The price of the solution can fluctuate. The price can be competitive or other times not. The price of the solution could be better."

"It's a high-cost offering amounting to three or four million Swedish kronor, or about $400,000 or euros, for approximately 480 terabytes of storage."

"The solution's licensing cost varies based on capacity and performance requirements."

"Dell PowerScale is expensive on the start-up side but we can recoup those costs quickly by not having to reapply the savings to other equipment."

"The price of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is reasonable."

More Dell PowerScale pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	65

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

The on-premises solution with Dell PowerScale, when we buy directly from Dell, is economical. We have done some level of comparison. Although in the current markets we have seen the price differenc...

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What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

There should be some enhancement where Dell PowerScale can have block level functionality or block storage kind of functionality. Although there is a different product line from Dell, if there is s...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

We use Dell PowerScale for our object scale and different kinds of storage, including both object storage and file storage.I am part of the solution architect team, which is a techno-commercial rol...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Celerra [EOL]

Compared 24% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs Celerra [EOL]

Compared 22% of the time

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NetApp FAS Series vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 16% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 8% of the time

Qumulo vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 5% of the time

VAST Data vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 3% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 3% of the time

More Dell PowerScale Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NAS

September 2026

Download Celerra [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale

September 2026

Download Dell PowerScale product report

Also Known As

Celerra

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

Overview

Each Celerra unified product is a dedicated network server optimized for file and block access, delivering high-end features in a scalable, easy-to-use package. For the ultimate in scalability, the Celerra unified storage platforms leverage both the innovative best-in-class EMC Fibre Channel RAID storage and deliver industry-leading EMC Celerra availability, performance, and ease of management. Celerra unified storage systems deliver a single-box block and file solution offering a centralized point of management for distributed environments.

Dell Technologies

Dell PowerScale leads in unstructured data management with unified file and object storage, massive scalability, security, and cloud adaptability, enhancing AI, analytics, and enterprise applications with exceptional performance and resilience.

Dell PowerScale Isilon provides a comprehensive platform for unstructured data, excelling in scalability, management, and performance. With features like single-pane management, SyncIQ, and SmartQuotas, it handles large datasets with flexibility and robust security. Its multi-protocol support and seamless expansion improve operational efficiency. While it offers strong data protection, enhancements in cloud integration, cybersecurity, and performance are sought. Users note potential for cost reductions and streamlined configurations and mention desired improvements in object storage handling and NFS support.

What are the key features of Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Single-pane management: Simplifies data control and monitoring through a unified interface.
SyncIQ: Ensures efficient data replication for business continuity.
SmartQuotas: Provides intelligent quota management for optimized storage allocation.
Multi-protocol support: Facilitates cross-platform data access and integration.
Seamless storage expansion: Allows effortless scaling to accommodate growing data needs.

What benefits should users consider when reviewing Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Operational efficiency: Reduces workload with easy management and automation.
Enhanced security: Offers comprehensive data protection and recovery options.
Scalability: Supports large-scale data storage with flexible growth capabilities.
Performance: Delivers high-speed data processing for demanding applications.
Integration flexibility: Adapts to on-prem and hybrid cloud environments for diverse deployment needs.

Organizations across industries utilize Dell PowerScale Isilon for large-scale unstructured storage, supporting applications like video archiving, genomic data storage, and high-resolution imaging. Educational institutions, research centers, and media enterprises rely on its scaled-out storage capabilities, providing centralized, secure storage for diverse applications in hybrid, cloud, and on-prem environments.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

Wentworth-Douglas Hospital, Kindred Healthcare, Cosentry, Sumitomo Life Insurance Company, Shriners, BZWBK

OMRF, University of Utah, Translational Genetics Research Institute, Arcis, Geofizyka Torumn, Cyprus E&P Corporation, Colburn School, Columbia Sportswear, Harvard Medical School, University of Michigan, National Library of France,

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, CTERA and others in NAS. Updated: September 2026.

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We monitor all NAS reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.